Celtic boss Ange Postecoglou fires warning to Premiership rivals as squad nears peak fitness ahead of title run-in

Ange Postecoglou reckons his Celtic squad is nearing peak fitness approaching the business end of the season.

The Hoops manager takes his side north for tonight’s Scottish Cup quarter-final tie against Dundee United, with a place in the last four alongside Rangers, Hibernian and Hearts awaiting the winner.

While their rivals and defending champions were continuing their Europa League adventure by beating Red Star Belgrade 3-0 last Thursday, Celtic had a rare week off after their recent Europa Conference League exit.

Postecoglou used the spare time to focus on fitness-based work with his players at Lennoxtown as they prepare for the Scottish Premiership title run-in and the Australian is pleased with how his squad are shaping up.

He stated: “That’s the theory and you never know until you get to the end of the season if that’s worked out well.

“We are in a good place in terms of the health of the squad and training is competitive. From the physical perspective, the players are in a good space.

“Our performances have been stable. They haven’t all been exhilarating, but we haven’t had too much fluctuation.

“All those kind of indicators show me that we are in a good space to finish the season strong. We will see as we go along.”

Postecoglou, who took charge of his 50th match as Celtic boss against Livingston earlier this month, is anticipating another thrilling cup tie when they take on Dundee United.

He added: “At this time of the year you see how much a point means to teams, and that can be fairly constricting.

“But in the cup competitions you say, ‘Well, let’s just go for it. There is an opportunity for teams to advance.

“It doesn’t mean that teams are all of a sudden just going to open up, but I just think that whenever the game is 0-0, teams will have a little bit more of a go.

“I think back to the semi-final of the League Cup and the way Hibs tackled Rangers in the first half. They probably hadn’t played with that freedom all year.

“Being so close to a cup final you can see that teams like that can do it, so we have to be ready for that and make sure we match whatever tempo and intensity there is in the game.”